Tesla museum is a go!

Over the summer, we shared that a not-for-profit group was trying to scrape together enough funding through crowd sourcing to buy the land Tesla’s last lab sits on in Shoreham, NY.

The land was up for sale, priced at $1.6 million, and had a bid on it by a developer looking to build a retail establishment. But if, by chance, the group was able to get the cash and secure the land, they planned to build a Tesla museum.

Since then the group, now calling themselves Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, raised about $1.4 million made up of corporate and individual donations, as well as government funding.

The group reported earlier this month that it has purchased the land. Plans to build a museum honoring Tesla and his work are moving ahead.

Now, keeping any museum alive is in a resource challenge in itself. Finding people to manage the day to day operations, working with local and state governments -- Just keeping the lights on can be a financial challenge (hey, someone should figure out a way to transmit energy wirelessly and inexpensively or something …).

But here’s more good news: In the short six weeks that the group did fundraising, hundreds of people volunteered their time and professional expertise to get the project started and to transform the 100-plus year-old brick building into a world-renowned museum and interactive science education center. Contact the group here if you’d like to contribute resources, experience, financial or otherwise.

No word yet from the group on when the museum will be open for visitors, but we’ll be watching and you can count on EDN taking a trip out to Shoreham to check it out. Let us know if you plan to visit or offer support in the comments field below.